User blog:WayfinderOwl/BTM: Who Needs Friends (I'm Rich) 5
And The Bag It Came In They say before things can get better, they need to get a whole lot worse. About right. For me, it did get worse. I knew the next twenty four hours were going to kill me. Not literally. All of it started with breakfast. After a quite enjoyable breakfast of scrambled eggs, Derby asked everyone to leave, except for me and Justin. In the greenhouse, surrounded by many plants, in the shadow of the great Venus fly trap, Derby stared at both of us. Brown eyes as emotionless and cold as the frost on the earth outside. Fingers laced together, resting on his lap. “Derby, I—,” Justin begun. “Hush,” Derby dismissed. “But this—,” I tried to explain. I received the same command as Justin, “Hush.” Derby seemed content to just stare at us. After what felt like an eternity, but was really only half a moment, he spoke. “I am aware of the ill-feeling between you. I am very aware of the cause. The fight will not take place in The Hole. Word spread too quickly. Teachers became aware of it. If we were to go ahead, they would find it. I have done some damage control, and rearranged it. Instead, the fight will take place in Glass Jaw Gym, but will have all the rules of The Hole. All the students in school have been invited.” Justin exhaled with relief. “This fight…” “Will happen, yes,” Derby said. “The challenge has been made. You both will fight, but when you do so, only one of you will be part of our fraternity.” Justin and I looked to one another speechless. I knew what had to be done. As much as I disliked him, he belonged here. Being part of Harrington house was his purpose. Mine was still out there. “It will be me,” I said, turning back to Derby. “I will leave this clique and Fraternity.” “Justin, your place is assured. Go. Leave Josh and I alone.” Under Derby’s orders, Justin did leave. On the way out of the greenhouse, he looked at me differently. Not acceptance or respect. Truly grateful. He knew the reason I made the choice I did. “Josh, I told no lies, when I said you had potential,” said Derby, the moment Justin was out of sight. “I know,” I replied. “I’m grateful for everything you have done. All the money you have spent, I will find some way to pay you back.” Asking Russell for a loan was certainly out of the question. Derby laughed, shaking his head. “You really should familiarize yourself with our rules and regulations. I shall fill in the blanks for you. As par with Father’s agreement with the headmaster, to keep our charter and fraternity, every four years a student from a poor background is awarded the Harrington Academic Scholarship. All your tuition and exam fees will be paid. Some money is set aside, to allow you all the luxuries you feel you need, such as uniform and so forth. The money I spent will come out of that. As of the next school year, you will be financed by the scholarship.” My mouth fell open. Quickly, I composed myself. “You’re really serious? Even though I’ve pretty much thrown away all the opportunities you gave me for a fight, I’m still going to get this scholarship thing?” Derby nodded. “Josh, were circumstances different. If you were from a wealthy old money family. We could have been friends.” “I learned long ago not to hang onto could haves. Can I…” I pointed towards the door. “Not quite yet.” Derby reached into his pocket, and retrieve a letter. “I received this yesterday. I found myself unable to process it.” He handed me the letter. I unfolded the simple unlined paper. My handwriting again. The narrative begun with Dear Mom and Dad, went on gleefully brag about scamming my way into the inner sanctum of the son of the man we scammed for nearly a year. Ending with a pretty good forgery of my own signature. I folded it back up. “I didn’t write this,” I said. “You have to believe me. I would never call either of them Mom or Dad to their face. Even less likely in a letter.” “I do believe you. Though the handwriting is a good forgery, it differs from yours subtly. Unnoticeable to the untrained eye. However, the words ring some truth. Are you the son of the couple who stole and vanished?” I nodded. “Yes. Dad paid a criminal to steal the stuff. Hide it in a lock up in north Algonquin. We were tied up, to make it look like a robbery. The last time before they disappeared was the real deal. He paid the wrong guy. I never saw a cent of the money. I told you once before, I was just a meal ticket to them.” “I will pass your words onto my father. Unless you hold some loyalty—.” Now it was my turn to cut across. “I hold no loyalty to them. The only reason I came to Bullworth was to get away from them. They both should have been locked up in prison a long time ago.” “Leave this information with me. You may go now.” “So, that is it. I’m not a prep anymore?” “No, you are still part of our fraternity. At least until the fight. Just before you face Justin in the ring, I will have you respectfully shake hands. Only then, will you verbally tend your resignation from the clique before the entire school. You fight alone.” There was nothing left for me to say. Or do. No explanation to give. Derby had listened, and given me a chance to stay at Bullworth. ^^^^ I was confined to my dorm. The prefects had taken a complete power trip. Putting every kid in school under dorm arrest. Crabblesnitch was determined to find The Hole, and he believed that keeping us all in our dorms might loosen our tongues. Fat chance of that. Pete and I sat on my bed, playing cards. I was trying—and failing I might add—to teach him how to play blackjack. He kept aiming for a five card flush, even though I had already given him nineteen or twenty with the first two or three cards. “How much money did you use to make off this?” asked Pete. “Not that much really. This game is purely chance, and knowing when to call it quits. Liar’s Dice is much easier to make money off. The people I played with were easy to spot their tell. The trick to that, is whittling down to one on one, then it is simply a matter of counting dice.” “You have to teach me,” said Pete. “I will one day.” “Have you put much thought into Christmas gifts?” “Not really. For my mom, I might get her a chisel and a blowtorch.” “Does she do much whittling or welding?” “Nah. I figured she might use them to get the makeup off her face at night.” Pete laughed. “I love how you talk about your mom.” “My mom could be described in three words; cheap, trashy, soulless. Dad acts like he is the daddy of everything. Dresses like a fake movie star, in all knock off designer. Acts like he is untouchable. It never occurred to him that he is nearly forty, and the best he can look forward to is being some convict’s bitch in prison.” “At least you have other family.” “Maybe. I mean, I do in the biological sense. Everyone has family beyond their parents. Whoever they are, I never met them. They probably disowned my parents before I was even born. I doubt they even know I exist.” I set down an ace from the deck, to go with my king, and won the round. “I’m thirsty. You want a beam cola while I’m out there?” Pete nodded, taking the cards to shuffle them. I headed out the dorm to the rec room. Behind me was some commotion at the door, that I didn’t bother looking at. Probably some kid trying to sneak out. I got two sodas from the machine. Leaning against the back rest of the sofa was some overweight greaser kid. The typical look. Greased back hair, leather jacket. He had a big brown paper bag from Burger. “Oi, Hyde, you want a cheese burger?” the kid asked. “Two actually. How much?” I wasn’t dumb enough to think they were free. “Five bucks each.” I fetched the cans from the slot at the bottom of the machine. Stacked them one on top of each other. Held them exactly where the cans met, to make them easier to carry. Reached into my back pocket. I only had five bucks left. “Five bucks, and I’ll do your homework in any class you choose,” I bartered. “Deal. You can do my photography project. It sucks ass. I have ta take pictures of Old Bullworth Vale. Like I’d be seen there. I ain’t no trust fund turd.” I gave him the money, took the food and returned to my room. Gary was stood in the doorway. His back leaning against the wall. Arms folded across his chest. Piercing eyes staring at a package placed at the bottom of my bed. I threw one of the burgers to Pete. “Some greaser was selling them. I owe him some photos for the Old Bullworth Vale project. Could I have some of yours?” “Sure. I plan to retake mine at the weekend. The great Christmas tree will be up by then. Maybe I can do a festive vale theme.” He reached over and took the top can of soda. I turned my head to Gary. “May we help you?” “Nah,” Gary replied. “Then what do you want?” “I had to deliver that package of yours. I want to know what is in it. Simple as that.” Normally I would have told him what he would go and do, but opening it in front of him would get rid of him faster. I set my soda and cheeseburger down on my pillow. The idea of sleeping on a pillow smelling of burgers was like a dream come true. Ripped the white envelope taped to the brown paper off. Tore open the envelope, inside was a white card the size of a business card. I read it aloud, to clench Gary’s thirst of curiosity—really he is a nosy douche, who should keep his crazy nose out. “Boy, happy 13th birthday.” I set it down. “Huh, only three years off. At least I hit double figures. And, it isn’t my birthday.” I ripped off the brown paper. The package itself was about the size of a phonebook. Not the small ones where people keep all their contacts, a large one with all the phone numbers in the area. I pulled open the cardboard flaps. Inside were all of my worldly goods—at least the ones I hadn’t the space in my pull along suitcase to bring to Bullworth with me. Four G&G cards. A beaten deck of cards. Four toothbrush cups, with twenty dice stowed in a small card box held together with rubber bands. A Red Dead comic book. One dirty slightly beaten baseball. A beanie with I♥LS stitched in. An old notebook, where I used to write letters to my imaginary parents. Most people had imaginary friends. I had imaginary parents named Angelique and James Weatherly. He was a banker, who always obeyed the law. She was a kind housewife who baked cookies. I imagined them as my real parents, who were searching for me. Rachael and Thomas Hyde were criminals who stole me. I spoke each item out loud, raising it from the box and putting it back in. “There, now you know what is in the box. Now will you get lost?” “That beanie is cool,” said Pete, looking into the parcel. I reached in and took it, threw it over to him. The hat hadn’t fit me since I was really thirteen. Just the right size for Pete. Gary nodded his head, turned and walked out into the hallway. I stood, shut the door behind him with a bit of a slam and locked it. Turning away from the mahogany colored door, I declared, “That kid is seriously insane.” From the box, I fetched the cups and the box of dice. Sitting down, I said, “How about I teach you how to play liar’s dice.” Between bites of cheese burger and the occasional sip of soda, I explained how to play the game. For a flat surface, I had popped two shelves out of the bookcase, and laid them flat on the bed. Both bookcases were empty anyway. The only books I had were in my locker, or the comic in the parcel I had received. At the game of lair’s dice, Pete stunk. He blushed when he lied, and made unbelievable guesses. Teaching him was fun. “How was Prep stuff?” said Pete, with an aftertaste of jealousy. “What prep stuff? Derby is kicking me out. Something about two kids from the same clique can’t fight each other in The Hole.” “Yeah, everyone knows that.” “I didn’t. It was either me or Justin who resigns. I took the hit. Justin fits that place like the diamonds on their argyle sweaters. Even if I live to be a thousand, I’ll never be one of them.” “So, what now?” “I’m just going to pretend all is well. When the fight happens, bow out peacefully.” “Josh, this search for a clique…” “I know it might seem ridiculous, but I’m never going to give up. I’d rather learn from experience that I don’t belong anywhere in this school.” “Trust me, not filling in anywhere is worse than your search. I’m too cool to be a dork, and too dorky to be anything else.” “I don’t think that is true. You just have to try.” “I don’t want to be in a clique. Or change everything about myself. All I want is a group of friends who just hang out.” “If you don’t try to fit in, then you will never get that.” Pete looked at me in an ''are you for real? ''kind of way. A tapping at the door disturbed us. Probably Gary coming back to bother us some more. I unlocked it, opened the door to find Bryce. He looked entirely out of place in the boys’ dorms. I was sure that he was in Harrington House for the lockdown. “Our clique alone is allowed to leave lockdown. You are requested to come join us at the docks of the Vale, to enjoy an afternoon lunch on Derby’s father’s yacht,” Bryce explained. I stood. “You’re not going, surely,” said Pete. “I am.” “Josh, they have done nothing but look down their nose at you. Tied you up and held you hostage. One of them screws thing up with a girl you have had a crush on from the moment you met her. And ditch you for standing up for yourself. Are you seriously going to have lunch with them on a yacht?” “Pete, what choice have I got? I have to keep the act going. Given the choice, I’d rather stay here, and buy a cold burger from the rec room.” “Then what is stopping you?” “Everything.” I walked out of the dorm room, and shut the door behind me. Category:Blog posts Category:WayfinderOwl's Fanfiction